This invention relates to ball separators for use in ball bearings; and more particularly to one piece ball separators for use in maximum complement ball bearings, and which separators have means for retention on each of the balls of the bearings. The term "ball separator" refers to a component of a ball bearing assembly which is also commonly known by the names "ball retainer" and "bearing cage."
Ball separators which are fabricated from moldable nonmetallic material, such as heat stabilized nylon, are known for use in conventional conrad type ball bearings; and these ball separators provide ball pockets defined by annularly spaced fingers, with each finger including two integral annularly spaced ears which project into adjacent pockets and are flexible to provide a "snap-in" entry for each pocket.
A maximum complement ball bearing contains many more balls than a conventional conrad type of ball bearing of comparable size, for carrying a higher load. In these maximum complement ball bearings, it is desirable that the ball separator have means for retention on each of the balls of the bearings; however, this is not possible with separator designs used with conrad type bearings because of space limitations.
One approach to providing a ball separator for maximum complement bearings, embodying generally the above described design for conrad type bearings, is to merely eliminate the ears for alternate pockets since there is insufficient space on the fingers for the described annularly spaced ears. While separators of this design may function satisfactorily, the bearing is unbalanced in the sense that each of the balls does not have the identical structural relationship to the other elements of the bearing assembly. Furthermore, a limitation of this design is that it is not suitable for bearing assemblies having an odd number of pockets and balls; since this would necessitate further unbalancing, requiring, at some point, two adjacent pockets which do not have ball retention ears. A further disadvantage of this is lesser retention of the separator on the several balls of the bearing, which may allow the separator to pop out of the bearing assembly under certain load conditions.
A principal object of this invention therefore is to provide a one piece ball separator for maximum complement ball bearings, having retention means for each of the balls of the bearing.
Another object of this invention is to provide such a one piece ball separator for bearings, which is capable of being molded from a suitable material by economic molding techniques.
A further object of this invention is to provide such a moldable ball separator which enables the economic building of a mold for the fabrication thereof.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a one piece ball separator particularly useful in maximum complement bearings, having ball retaining ears which are sufficiently rugged and flexible for retaining balls in each of the pockets.
These objects are accomplished in a ball separator for use in a ball bearing which includes an outer race, an inner race, and a plurality of balls coacting with the outer and inner races. The ball separator includes an annular base, a plurality of annularly spaced fingers projecting generally axially from said base to define an interrupted annular rib which is adapted to be received between the outer and inner races of the ball bearing assembly, with the rib fingers defining individual annularly spaced ball enclosing pockets. The improvement in the ball separator is that each of the fingers comprises a pedestal for at least two independently flexing ears which are integral extensions of the pedestal, with these at-least-two ears being radially separate and partially overlapping. The distal ends of at least two of the ears on each pedestal project away from each other into the two adjacent pockets, whereby each pocket is partially defined by the reentrant ears of its associated fingers.
More particularly the fingers project axially from the base, defining a cylindrical rib; with the base defining a base plane transverse to the axis of the ball separator and said pedestals terminating in a plane parallel to the base plane; and said ears having flat tips disposed in a plane parallel to the base and pedestal plane. The confronting lips of the ears for each pocket, at the distal ends, may be sharp, beveled or contoured.
The novel features and the advantages of the invention, as well as additional objects thereof, will be understood more fully from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.